Fugro’s innovative work on the condition assessment of a water supply aqueduct has won industry acclaim in this year’s New Civil Engineer (NCE) Tunnelling Awards.

The development triumphed in the Ground Investigation and Monitoring category in a joint submission with water company, United Utilities, and infrastructure group, J Murphy & Sons.

Based on the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR), Fugro collaborated on a high efficiency, high accuracy approach to non-intrusive condition scanning of concrete tunnels at the Haweswater Aqueduct in north-west England. With the support of United Utilities a combined Fugro and Murphy team invested more than a year designing, building and testing the system which was operated from a fleet of battery-powered vehicles.

The judges were impressed by the strong teamwork involved, and with the capacity of the system to collect a large volume of data on the condition of a piece of critical infrastructure in a very limited time window.

The awards showcase the latest technical achievements and best practice in tunnelling to a worldwide audience. Entries are judged by an illustrious panel of global tunnelling experts drawn from leading infrastructure clients, consulting engineers and contractors.

The winners were announced at a gala award ceremony in London on December 8.

Fugro provides extensive site characterisation and asset integrity services to support the delivery, maintenance and risk management of tunnel infrastructure throughout its lifespan. Services range from geological, ground and allied geoscientific investigations for planning, design and construction, to structural and condition assessment to inform maintenance and ultimately decommissioning.

The group has been involved with tunnel projects for transport, energy and utilities around the world including Crossrail and Thames Tideway in London, the Eurasia Tunnel in Turkey and the Fehmarnbelt immersed tunnel in the Baltic Sea.